The prior art already is aware of and utilizes sheet stackers in many different forms. These stackers are commonly in the form of conveyors and receivers which handle a stream of sheets coming from a folder or a printing press or the like, and the stackers form the sheets into a collected stack. One example of a prior art stacker is found in my U.S. Pat. No. 2,933,341 which shows stacker apparatus having an incoming conveyor which transports a stream of sheets to a stack conveyor whereon the sheets are repositioned from their stream relation and into an aligned stack. Another example of apparatus for handling sheets and arranging them in a stack and subsequently handling the stack is found in my U.S. Pat. No. 3,739,924.
Also, the prior art is already aware of apparatus and stacker arrangements wherein the stacked sheets are separated into discrete piles or stacks, and the prior art commonly utilizes a so-called separator plate for dividing the formed stack into the smaller and discrete stack, and this is also shown in my U.S. Pat. No. 2,933,314. Still further, separator plates which are under the control and influence of powered mechanism, such as a fluid cylinder, are utilized in the stacker industry, and an example of such is found in U.S. Pat. No. 3,866,765. However, in the examples given herein, the separator plates, whether they are manually controlled or power controlled, both as mentioned above they are only utilized for separating a stack itself, and they are not shown in those references as being used on an imbricated stream of sheets for interrupting the flow of the stream into the final stack. Accordingly, accurate count of the sheets in the final stack is not likely nor accomplished in the prior art.
The present invention provides a separator for a sheet stacker wherein the separator itself is automatically operative and responds to the count of a certain number of sheets passing into the stack. Further, in accomplishing this objective, the apparatus of this invention permits continuous operation and thereby permits continuous collecting and stacking of the sheets into their discrete stacks of accurate numbers of sheets.
Another object of this invention is to provide a separator for a sheet stacker wherein the functions of transporting a stream of sheets and collecting the stream in a stack and separating the sheets into certain numbers in each stack, are all automated and are continuously and accurately performed in their respective functions. Accordingly, the apparatus of this invention operates without interruption and the flow of sheets is continuous while providing the accurate number of sheets in the plurality and continuous numbers of stacks produced by the apparatus.
In summary, the present invention improves upon the prior art by providing a separator for a sheet stacker which is completely automated and which provides an accurate count of the sheets moving into the final stack, and the operator needs to only monitor the apparatus or perform only minimal unskilled tasks during the operation of the apparatus.